Sketch 50: Join the Movement!

Everyone Can Draw!

Even if you think that you can't draw, I want you to know that you can! Whenever I start a sketchnoting lesson in the classroom, I have students point their finger in the air and draw 4 things: a straight line, a squiggly line, a circle, and a dot. All images are made up of some form of those elements, so as long as can do that, YOU CAN DRAW!

What is Sketch 50?

Sketch 50 was started by Cate Tolnai, SCCOE EdTech Coach and sketchnoter, who has found tremendous value in practicing 1 drawing a day. Her idea was to form a community of learners to practice 1 sketch every day, leading up to Drawing Day on May 16, 2017. That makes 50 sketches! 

By sketching along with hundreds of other doodlers, Sketch 50 is meant to help you gain confidence in your artistic ability as you grow your visual library one day at a time. Once you know how to draw a light bulb, then you can use that same light bulb to represent words like idea, learning, clarity, knowledge, etc. Imagine how many words you could represent if you had 50 images in your visual library!

Join the Movement

Here's how it works:

Once you are following Sketch 50, starting on Monday, March 27, 2017, look for the word of the day. Get inspired by the community of learners posting to #sketch50 and sketch away! This can be a personal journey or one that you share with your students. However you decide to participate, don't forget to share to @sketch_50 on Twitter or Instagram. 

I hope you decide to join us. We're all in this journey together, so encourage one another and be proud of your creations! 

3 Easy Halloween Activities

Looking for some fun, easy Halloween Activities to do with your class? Here are a few simple ideas that can work at different grade levels.

Halloween Magnetic Poetry 

This activity has been shared all over Twitter by @ShakeUpLearning. Read Kasey Bell's blog post Halloween Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings. I modified her template a little so that more of the words are visible.

Halloween Google Doc Fun!

Here is a simple Google Doc Halloween lesson that I originally created for a 2nd grade class.  It gets students to play around with the simple, basic functions of Google Docs in a fun way. Here's what students do inside this activity:

• read a Halloween poem
• change font and color of 2 important word from each line
• use the Research Tool to insert an image to match lines of the poem
• learn how a Google Drawing works inside of a Doc

Teaching students how to use the Research Tool is an important feature in Docs. Just in case students finish the activity early, I added the magnetic poetry to the 2nd page for students. Students are invited to create a spooky sentence, or a spooky poem.

Cinquain Poem Template

Halloween always sparks some really creative an imaginative ideas and I used to always have my 4th grade students write different kinds of poetry in October. 

 This Google HyperDoc gets students to plan and create a Cinquain poem. Completing a class copy of the Cinquain Poem Template Doc is a great way to get the students thinking about their own poem. After the poem draft is completed, you can give your students art supplies for their final draft, or I gave suggestions of some tech tools that they can use to creatively display their work.

I kept this template neutral so that it can be used any time of year, not just Halloween. 

If you have any questions, or would like help trying out any tech lessons in your classroom, please email me at pacadag@unionsd.org.